Budget Japanese Guitar Brand Treasures

[Music] thank you [Music] hi everybody today I'm fat philosopher here bringing you another guitar review okay like always please remember I'm not a professional guitar reviewer nobody paid me to do this I paid with these these guitars with my you know my daughter's college fund and basically just thinking is this a dude who owns some guitars and likes talking to other dudes who own guitars right but today I want to bring it to you is a Japanese uh budget-friendly brands that you've probably never heard of before now as you know there's you know in America and whatnot there's a whole bunch of Brands but almost for every brand there is in America there's like a Japanese brand that only sells in Japan there's like dozens of them right and of course some people call like high-end ones like uh say freedom or history or vola these are all kind of higher end ones of course there's famous Mass producers like Ibanez and ESP but also there's a something you don't know lots of these kind of budget brand ones that you might be interested in now imagine you're going to Japan and maybe you'd go and thought maybe I'll bring a travel guitar with me but instead of that what I recommend you to do is to your first day you get there go to one of the many pawn shops in Japan and buy yourself one of these like like this and then on your last day maybe on it off and you'll have a great playing experience without having to craft little on a travel guitar for almost no price now the thing about Japanese brands you know you might think well I could say you know it's the same like a glary or a Donner or a firefly no the thing about Japan is that a lot of those uh copyright rules you have in America that you can't copy headstocks stuff like that they don't apply in Japan so these Japanese uh Brands as long as they only sell in Japan can make exact copies of all these famous Gibson and Fender guitars so uh and you get them at strictly good deals let's take this guitar here now this guitar is Left-Handed uh LP type guitar I bought this for wait for it 70 bucks American used and when I mean used I mean this guitar was hardly touched it's almost brand new and what am I getting for 70 bucks okay this is a band called phonogenic a photo this is a brand called photogenic I'll throw a screen of some of their guitars they sell their guitars new on Amazon and in some uh pawn shops the the infamously named hard off Pawn Shop in Japan they sell these new as well for about 220 for the the Les Paul types they also have a uh you know Strat types and stuff like that for a little bit more I thought a little bit they also have Strat types for a little bit less and they also have like little package deals where if you get a sit up and I'm thrown in for about 300 bucks or something like that but for new they're like 220 but for use you can get them under 70 80 bucks all day long for these kind of guitars and there are other ones like they're Strat types you know those can be easily bought for like 30 40 bucks all day long for guitar that's you know hardly been used because most of these are kind of guitars about for kids and beginners they give up the guitar is still great now let's take a look what I'm getting for cinebox now imagine you're going to put this against say that the lowest land uh Epiphone well first of all let's take a look first I'm getting a Tobacco Burst you know uh two-tone Tobacco Burst you know what I've got a classic type of vintage type of look to it I'm getting an arch top on that you know it's a nice Arch Top Cut the Epiphone would not be Arch top I'm getting a nice dark fretboard not sure if that's real Ebony or what it is it's also got binding on the side of it no fret Sprout on the Frets binding on the guitar painted neck and whatnot now this is and of course it's a set neck right it's like you could not get an epiphone for this price of cheesed up before and you could like they get near this you're gonna have a bolt on Flat Top kind of an ugly color and what not your name and as you can see the headstock is like almost exactly like a Gibson there okay this uh the brand name photogenic if you've seen like a different type of a logo like change their logo like every couple of weeks I think because I've seen so many photogenic logos on their name okay the nut is you know what's plastic nut but seems to work you know your standard LP sized Frets on it got your pickguard this toggle switch all seems to work fine here's a couple other things I find really interesting about this first of all I'm saying what about the pickups what about them first of all ah they're not photogenic right these are wax potted pickups in here and another thing I like about this guitar [Music] the pot works right and they're Lefty pots and it's full it says 10. when it's off it says zero can you believe that Lefty players all know that almost number the numbers almost never match up on guitars like I have righty pox in there they put actual Lefty pots in this thing okay little sound things here let's try it on the bridge pickup [Music] [Music] it's a usable sound right and uh goes dirty pretty good you know of course you might want to throw at the pickups you know but uh if you're just like on a travel or something you're in Japan you know hey they you can gig with these pickups right not the hottest out there but they work fine they're they're for smart 70 guitar they're good and of course it's kind of over the fact that they have left the hip right Lefty plots in these things this is just like one brand here photogenic there's other ones of course it's like Blitz I'll throw a picture in here this is a blitz actually in a local store to write had a guitar outside then but same thing it's about 70 bucks for this guitar nice blue top on it nah is it veneer well maybe but hey you know your fans don't care and only veneers only really cause a problem if you get like a good scratch on them and you can kind of see underneath well otherwise like who cares right you know he really cares if it's a top or not on it today and there's like I said there's Oodles of Brands out there in Japan you know I throw a whole bunch of list of names of ones I know the buskers Legend zelder this one called Morris there's all these guitar brands that give these uh all these like on a budget type of names you never heard of before but they but they treat it well and the quality is if it's good like you know I'm uh not a big Les Paul guy and I've had but I've had about five or six of them and I don't feel the quality on this is any worse than any of the other ones I've played you know you know I I had a Les Paul Studio played about the same as that one I've had um the aoi ones had there's less scratches than that aoi one when it came in and I had uh of course Tokai and Tokai had a nice bright top on and I like the hokkai too but this one seems to be fine you know there is no there's no real thing that says this is a cheap guitar really on it you know the back on it didn't he one thing I'd say about uh buying in Japan so like like I said they buy these you can buy these new for like you know 200 bucks or so but if you're going to the pawn shop you're not to do a bit of a setup yourself you can get lots of guitars for like the 70 bucks if it's like a strat style you may even give it less like 80 bucks or something like that very cheap I don't see many tea Styles not many Telly style ones in Japan for some salary like s Styles and LP Styles so but I'm sure they're out there but at least they're not for left-handed there ain't any for a left-handed there but uh but it's something to really check to check out there uh other brands that might be a little bit more up a great there's a docus which is kind of famous for some high-end bases and stuff they also make um like you know beginner strats in Japan and they uh and they also used you know 50 bucks 60 bucks all day long um there is um ESP the lowest uh level their guards is Grassroots and I've had a Grassroots before too like on a black tuxedo type LP now they go they're supposed to go new for about 600 often they seem new for about 450. but even used I bought my used one for about 150 bucks and you can get a lot of Grassroots that make almost you know ESP makes almost all types of guitars from Grassroots brand they made five string acoustic Bass for under the Grassroots names everything they got there and those guitars used you can often get them well under 300 bucks often under 200 bucks as well I bought a v ship to the guy to Australia that's Grassroots cost me about 140 dollars that's it so even the yes and those are all like direct copies as well you know grass suits they don't sell in America because they're not copies so you know LTDs which are a little bit you know not quite a direct copy you know so if you wanted to have like you know for me I'm not really an LP type of guy I've had five and down to this one now why did I keep this one because well hey it was 70 bucks and it plays pretty well as well as anyone I ever had so we come to Japan go to uh one of their uh many uh if you come to Japan come to one of many of their used shops you've got of course the heart off you got Second Street you've got we buy anything and uh and they're and you can often like this find these great guitars all day long so that's a little short video talking about no-name Brands this one particularly like I said again was called photogenic no name Japan brands way better than the No Name when you find in America please come and check them out salute

Channel: Shane Walton

Views: 704

Keywords: #japaneseguitars

Id: lcH4pH7koL4

Length: 11min 46sec (706 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 09 2023